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<h2>What Teachers are Saying ...</h2>

Dr. Andrew Harrington<br>
Director of Academic Programs in Computer Science<br>
Loyola University Chicago<br>
<a href="http://webpages.cs.luc.edu/~anh">homepage</a>

<p>I want pyKata to serve my introductory computer science class, where I get a broad range of student abilities.  I want the ones who pick things up slower to have a broad range of practice at the right level, delivered to them at an appropriate rate. I want the better students, in particular, to be able to easily explore and go beyond the confines of my class.</p>

<p>I am about to start teaching Python to a high school math class in a school where they have been very forward looking, having all students possess a tablet computer.  However they have no budget for programming instruction.  I want a teacher, who would love to give a modern treatment of mathematical algorithms, to have a totally free and well designed place to go to, with no expense or risk, and find a thread of exposition and computational examples and exercises appropriate to a mathematical perspective.</p>

<p>I also introduced Python in a selective enrollment public high school, with a tech component that only did A+ certification.  I would like that instructor be able to broaden instruction easily and freely, so students not only take computers apart and put them together, but make them do creative things.  And if the A+ teacher has limited experience programming, I want it to also be easy for the teacher to learn more about programming.</p>

<p>I have taught a class for the community, where parent and child pairs came to learn some Python together.  I do not have the time to do this regularly face to face, but I want to have a place for the parent and child to go and explore neat stuff together.  I want to have the child find out that the technical world is not only concerned with using other people's apps, but that there is an open door for the child to be a creator and shaper of the technical world, too.  When somebody using a computer refuses to serve the child "because the computer makes me do it that way", I want that child to learn that this not a good excuse.  Computers can be programmed to do what you want them to do.  Computers are our servants.  I want the child to know these things from experience.</p>

<p>I have visited and consulted with a school in Tanzania with a tiny budget, but with access to the Internet, and with bright, inquisitive students.  I want them to be able to reach beyond the confines of their village, and help bring their country into the first world.</p>

<p>I want a site where teachers can share their experience under a creative commons license.  It want them to be able to weave in their own materials and perspectives with any number of parts that others have already worked out and shared.  I want an interface that makes this easy to do.</p>

<hr>
<pre>
Jeff Elkner
Governor's Career and Technical Academy in Arlington (GCTAA)
Author, "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist"
<a href="http://openbookproject.net/books">Open Book Project</a>

I've been dreaming of and waiting for pyKata for more than 10 years.
When it finally arrives, it will transform the way I teach in several
ways:

1. I will be able to make the on-line textbook on which I'm working
<a href="http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/index.html">How to Think Like a Computer Scientist</a> interactive.  "Live" exercises
will be included in the book, making it usable with zero installation
on any platform with a modern web browser.

2. We will be able to begin a project to extend pyKata to support
on-line Python quizzes and tests that integrate with the SchoolTool
(http://schooltool.org) gradebook.

3. We will be able to think about the basic competencies that a
student needs to master to learn programming, develop a competency
list and evaluation items in pyKata used to assess these competencies.
 I would personally get involved in integrating this list with the
competency tracking system in SchoolTool
(http://cando.schooltool.org).

I'm looking forward to the day in the not too distant future when we
can offer teachers in the state of Virginia (and beyond, of course,
but I'll be focusing on Virginia) a complete on-line Python course
that:

1. Can be used in either classroom or self-learning
2. Has complete course materials on-line and free (both as in beer
*and* as in speech).
3. Is completely integrated with CanDo and the Virginia CTE's
Programming Course
(http://www.cteresource.org/verso/cpg/course.html?course_code=6640).

pyKata is an essential piece in all of this.  It will provide us the
ability to offer for free, the rich, on-line course experience
currently offered for Java by commercial providers like The Institute
for Mathematics and Computer Science (IMACS) (http://www.eimacs.com).

Python is becoming a more and more popular choice as the language for
introductory programming classes.  pyKata would go a long way to
making it even more irresistible as the tool of choice for starting
beginning programmers on their way.

</pre>

<hr>

Dr. David MacQuigg, Electronic Design Engineer<br>
Research Associate, University of Arizona<br>
<a href=http://purl.net/macquigg>homepage</a>

<p>My clients (circuit design engineers) hate programming and hate the messy scripting languages that come with circuit design tools. Many times I have seen simple tasks delayed while waiting for a professional programmer, or not done at all.  With PyKata, I can say - Take a few days and learn Python. You will have not just a language for one tool from one vendor, but a tool you can use in just about anything involving computation.</p>

<p>I plan to use Python as the scripting language in AnalogRails, a new circuit-design platform.  The platform comes with a set of simple scripts, but the design engineers will take over once they see how easy it is to write their own.  PyKata will be an essential part of getting busy engineers to learn just enough Python to do some simple scripting.</p>

<p>PyKata will help with our University classes in Engineering and Science. Like busy professionals, students find it difficult to focus on their project (learning fundamentals) while distracted by the complexities of programming.</p>

<hr>

<pre>
Richard Guenther
Math and Computer Science
Skyline High School, Longmont, CO
<a href="http://shs.stvrain.k12.co.us/computerscience.htm">homepage</a>

I teach Computer Science at Skyline High School in Longmont, Colorado.
Skyline is a STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) and VPS
(Visual and Performing Arts) focus school.  We are a public school in a
large district with the highest number of minority students, ELL students,
and students on the free and/or reduced lunch program.  We clearly have
our challenges.  At the same time, however, we have an energetic staff and
a great, forward-looking Principal, Ms. Patty Quinones.  A few years ago I
came to Skyline to help its English as a Second Language department better
meet the needs of its students in math and science classes.

The PyKata project would serve a need we have at Skyline. We have
experienced students ready to start contributing to the project, and
newcomers to Python programming that would benefit greatly from working
through the problems themselves.  Most importantly, it would allow me to
focus on design strategies with my students and allow them to get the
necessary practice with the tactics of programming.  PyKata will a major
help for the Computer Science program at Skyline.

Back in 2003, and "Just for fun", I decided to  sponsor a Computer
Programming club and decided from the start that Skyline would use Open
Source software to give our students accessibility not possible with
proprietary software.  We began to share Python code and work on various
projects the students had designed.  I appreciated the access provided by
Open Source software.  My students could go home and install the very same
software we used at school, without hassle.  We began to install Linux on
refurbished computers and let students have them--all they had to do was
show an interest in Computer Science.

In time, the Skyline Programming Club grew to the point where it was
possible to start offering Computer Science classes.  Patty Quinones asked
me to consider developing a CS department and a multi-year curriculum.  I
went to Carnegie Mellon and met with Wanda Dann and Don Slater of the
Alice Core Team, and thanked them personally for Alice, as it was very
popular with my Intro to Programming students.  I was lucky to have the
NSF (via a GK12 grant) fund a 5+ year partnership with the Computer
Science department of Colorado University in nearby Boulder.  I had a full
schedule of CS classes I was teaching, and yet had no budget--the "free as
in beer" part of Open Source was quite popular with the community here
during the recent recession.  I was lucyk to have Allen Downey of Green
Tea Press print hard copies of Think Python (a book he had written with
Jeff Elkner) and provide them to us at cost for the printing.  Our
students benefit from Google Apps Education and we will be moving our CS
department into a new lab made possible by a mill levy and bond that we
were lucky to have supported by the public.

I am delighted that my roster of students for next year's Intro classes
are nearly 50% female students--a goal I have been working on since coming
to Skyline.  With the help of CU Boulder, we are also attracting a large
number of ELL and Special Education students into our CS classes.  The
PyKata project would be embraced by Skyline, and it would also be a way
for my most experience students to give back to the same community that
has proved indispensable to our school.  I can guarantee that the PyKata
project would benefit a large and very diverse group of students.

</pre>
<hr>
Michel Paul<br>
Computation Mathematics Teacher<br>
Beverly Hills High School<br>
<a href=http://bhhs.bhusd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=22760&type=u&rn=2796596>homepage</a>

<p>My goal is to show kids how to think about the secondary mathematics
curriculum in computational terms.</p>

<p>When a typical student sees a math equation, the question they ask is,
"What am I supposed to DO?"  They seldom ask, "What does this statement
MEAN?"</p>

<p>We need to teach them to think about what a mathematical statement means,
and I think in order to do so it would help them to have a language in
which they can articulate processes, in which they can build and test
their ideas.</p>

<p>Writing a program and writing a proof are very similar activities in that
we are reducing our thoughts to previously defined terms, but a
fundamental difference between them is that a program unfolds in time
while a proof is a description of static relations.  Perceiving and
reasoning about abstract relations requires the development of background,
and I believe the judicious use of programming can be of immense help in
developing this background.</p>

<p>This contrast between procedure and proof is something contemporary
secondary math education can address using a language like Python.</p>

<p>My goal is to create a secondary Math Analysis course that is actually
about the analysis of mathematical concepts rather than a 'precalculus'
review and preview of certain topics.</p>

<p>A tool like pyKata will provide a way to easily focus students on problems
to solve without them having to worry about overhead issues.  I will be
able to assign problems as homework and use problems for class discussion
using an environment available anywhere there is internet access.</p>

<p>I look forward to the full implementation of this resource.  My
understanding is that individual teachers will be able to use it for their
own needs, but at the same time there will be a collection of problems
provided by a community.  As this collection grows, all kinds of creative
uses can evolve.</p>

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